Sigh,
This was all my own fault. I had a file /etc/modprobe.d/local with a
long list of disabled modules, that is lines like
install jbd /bin/true
I don't even quite remember why it was there, but it is probably related
to mounting removable media which would try a long list of different
file system types and cause a lot of warnings and slow things down. For
some reason this stupid thing has never bitten me before.
Anyway, these lines were taken into account when building the initrd
file, so several necessary modules were left out, resulting in an
unusable initrd file.
I do feel a bit daft, but at least I'm now running linux 2.6.15 smp on
my computer and it works great :-) Always look on the bright side ...
René
René Seindal wrote (09-02-2006 00:52):
Hi
I have a problem with modprobe on one computer. Due to some
unidentified problem with modprobe I'm having a lot of problems
upgrading a computer to linux 2.6.15 smp.
When installing the debian kernel and booting I got loads of messages
complaining about "Unknown symbol journal_xxx". For some reason the
initrd didn't load the jbd module needed by ext3.
After a lot of searching and rebooting (one feels almost like an MSCE by
now :-) I found out that mkinitramfs uses modprobe to figure out what
depends on want.
Mkinitramfs does a
modprobe --set-version=2.6.15-1-686-smp --show-depends jbd
which on my system gives:
install /bin/true
Comparing with other systems (with other versions) I get output like:
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko
For ext3 I get:
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
install /bin/true
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko
which should be
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko
As a consequence I get an unusable initrd file because a lot of needed
modules are missing. I have only identified jbd, but there are
certainly other missing too. I have compared the contents of different
initrd files and the ones on the problematic system are much too small.
I have tested this on three systems: a Soltek Qbic system with problems
(2.6.15-1-686-smp and 2.6.15-1-686), an Asus M2N laptop (2.6.15-1-686)
and a HP Proliant server (2.6.12-1-686-smp), both without problems.
Modprobe only misbehaves on the Soltec Qbic system.
Besides the different kernel versions they are very much alike. All run
Etch (testing) and have
# dpkg -l module-init-tools
ii module-init-to 3.2.2-1 tools for managing Linux kernel
modules
I have uninstalled modutils from all systems.
Its late now and I want to sleep, but until now I have been unable to
find out why modprobe on the Qbic doesn't work.
I have looked in the files in /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/modules.*
and they have the same lines for the modules I tested. The correct
dependencies are there on all systems.
I was unable to install 2.6.15-1-686-smp or 2.6.15-1-686 on the Qbic
because mkinitramfs was unable to create a bootable initrd file. In the
end I installed the -smb kernel on my laptop and copied the initrd file
over with scp, and the Qbic could boot. I cannot, however, upgrade the
kernel now without resorting to similar tricks.
I haven't reported any bugs, because I haven't got a clue about whats
wrong, except the symptoms described above. There is probably something
misconfigured on the Qbic since the others don't have problems, but what?
A bit of help would be very much appreciated.
--
René Seindal ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
